Where those associated with Western films from around the world are laid to rest.

Monday, September 4, 2017

RIP Gastone Moschin

Spettacoli

By
Alessandra Vitali

September
4, 2017

He
was 88 years old.He went to a hospital
in Terni. His film debut in the 1950s, lead to his great popularity as an actor
with his character of Rambaldo Melandri, one of the gypsy comrades in Mario
Monicelli's cult film.

"Boys,
how is it good among us, among men! But why did not we all be born?"It's hard to remember that, while exclaiming
happily in front of other gypsy companions, it's hard not to think about
Rambaldo Melandri's architect Amici miei: Gastone Moschin died today at 88.He had been hospitalized for a few days in
the Santa Maria di Terni hospital. A long career of theater, cinema and
television, immortality with Monicelli's film. With a post on Facebook, his
daughter Emanuela Moschin announced the passing: "Goodbye Dad, for me you
were all".

Veneto
of San Giovanni Lupatoto, in the province of Verona, Gastone Moschin was born
on June 8, 1929. His acting career began in the 1950s, he worked with the
company of Stabile di Genova, with that of Piccolo di Milan, with that of the
Stabile di Torino. Later, in 1983, he will set up his own company, with whom he
will stage Goldoni ( Sior Todero brontolon ), Miller ( A Look From the Bridge ,
They Was All My Children ), Chekhov ( The Seagull ).

He
finishes in the 1950s in the cinema, both as a singer and an actor. His debut
in 1955 in The Rival of Anton Giulio Majano, the debut in the Italian comedy,
the genre that will declare the actor his fortune, four years later, with “L'audace
colpo dei soliti ignoti” by Nanni Loy.But it was in 1962 the role that enabled him to emerge as an
interpreter, that of the Fascist Carmine “Anni ruggenti”, the 1962 film
directed by Luigi Zampa, protagonist Nino Manfredi, inspired by “L'ispettore
generale” by Gogol. Since then, Moschin became a constant presence in Italian
cinema: Damiano Damiani's “La rimpatriata” (1963) at “La visita” by Antonio
Pietrangeli (1965) to Sette uomini d'oro”, a comedy "action" film
which earns great success at the box office.

But
if the comedy seems to be a great opportunity to reach the public quickly,
critics' applause comes with two dramatic roles entrusted to him in 1966:
Florestano Vancini wants it for “Le stagioni del nostro amore” while Peter
Germi calls him for “Signore & signori”, an extraordinary fresco of the
hypocrisy of the Italian province in Moschin, a silver ribbon as the best
non-protagonist, conquered with the role of a husband frustrated by a
suffocating wife who loses his head for the fascinating cashier Virna Lisi."I first adored him as a man who, as a
director, had told Moschin in an interview with the Republic," on the set
of “Signore & signori”, he was scrupulous and very severe, and if an actor
was not prepared he was very angry. "I came to Treviso because someone had
told Germi that I was a Venetian, and he took me. He was a reserved man."

Whether
it is a shoulder or primate, Moschin demonstrated a polar bear in passing from
one genre to another.In the late
seventies he continued with comedies, from “Italian Secret Service” to “Sissignore
e Dove vai tutta nuda?”, in '69 he goes with the Spaghetti western in “Lo specialist”,
Sergio Corbucci, will be a flop at the box office. In 1970 he participated in “Il
conformist” by Bernardo Bertolucci and agrees to work in a first experiment of
"fantasy Italian"“L'inafferrabile invincibile mister invisibile”, by
Antonio Margheriti, this also is not really a box office success.He does not even reckon with the policewoman
- or the policewoman - from Rome by Carlo Lizzani (1971) to the famous “Milano
calibro 9” directed by Fernando Di Leo, with him are Mario Adorf and a young
and beautiful Barbara Bouchet in 1972.

In
the same year, he was given a difficult task: take Fernandel's place, who died
the previous year, in one of the episodes of the most popular saga of the time,
“Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi”.The
year after “Il delitto Matteotti” - 1973 - A Great Occasion: Francis Ford
Coppola entrusts him to Fr. Fanucci's part, a brilliant extraterrestrial with
Robert De Niro, in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century in “The
Godfather Part Two”. He will find great personal success with the character of
the Marsigliese in “Squadra volante”, directed in 1974 by Stelvio Massi, a
policeman with Tomas Milian and Mario Carotenuto.

But
1975 is the year of gold.The one that
goes to the movies “Amici miei”.Moschin
is the architect Rambaldo Melandri, ingeniously romantic, a constant victim of shattered
love, with Ugo Tognazzi, Philippe Noiret, Adolfo Celsius and Duilio Del Prete
in one of the most popular films of Italian cinema history, an absolute cult
classic. The film is at the top of the season's standings.In the ‘82 comes the sequel, same team,
Monicelli directed, new entry Renzo Montagnani who replaces Duilio Del Prete. It
is the third recess of the season. Three years later, in 1985, the third film
of the saga. In the direction of Nanni Loy, Moschin receives his second silver
ribbon.

In
the following years the actor slows down his appearances. He raises the bar for
himself and takes roles of quality like that of the communist parliamentarian “Si
salvi chi vuole” by Roberto Faenza of 1980, or the Minister of “Scherzo del
destino in agguato dietro l'angolo come un brigante da strada” which Lina
Wertmüller directs in ‘83, or “I magi randagi”, 1996. It is the year after his
last performance for the big screen, the “Porzus” by Renzo Martinelli. But he
will not give up in 2010 in the documentary “L'ultima zingarata”, dedicated to “Amici
miei”.

It
was not just the cinema that Gastone Moschin had a great commitment. Since the
mid-1950s, he had worked for television, by Gantone Tanzi, under the watch of
Gastone Tanzi, one of the first works, by Sandro Bolchi's screenwriters,
following on TV, such as ‘Il mulino del Po’ (1963) and ‘I miserabili’ (1964 )
in which she plays Jean Valjean.His
latest performances date back to 2000 and 2001, when he participated in the
first two seasons of fiction by ‘Don Matteo’ and ‘Sei forte maestro’. From that
moment, in fact, his final retreat from film. Now, as many have written on
Twitter, it will be there that he has reached his companions and with them if
he laughs: “tarapia tapioca, as if it were ants”

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.